When I was a small child I had an asthmatic condition, and my parents sought healing for me through Christian Science. When I wasn't readily healed, in their loving concern for me they chose instead to rely on medical means. But healing eluded the best efforts of my doctors.
During the many years I was under medical care, each week I attended the Christian Science Sunday School. Because of my poor health I made slow progress in schoolwork. But when I was twelve a Sunday School teacher helped me to realize that I had the ability to learn to read. He not only encouraged me; he lovingly helped me with words during Sunday School sessions without making me feel conspicuous in front of the other pupils. Then, with my developing reading skills, I began to search out and ponder truths in the Bible and in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. When I was thirteen another Sunday School teacher, a Christian Science practitioner, helped me to catch a glimpse of the spiritual meaning of this statement (Science and Health, p. 207): "There is but one primal cause." I began to see that God was truly the only cause in my life. And over the next several years I often used this statement as the basis of prayer for myself.
Even though I appreciated all that the doctors who had treated me had tried to do, while I was away at college I decided to give up medical means and to rely completely on God in Christian Science for healing. After that, at times I felt that my family was quite concerned for my wellbeing, but I still held to my decision. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 147): "Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly applied under circumstances where demonstration was humanly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though centuries had passed away since Jesus practised these rules on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee." I felt that it wasn't "humanly possible" for me to experience healing if there was even the slightest desire to take medication.
Healing didn't come in a flash, but I was encouraged by the examples set by friends in the Christian Science college organization on my campus. Even though there were many moments of doubt, my life gradually improved. Then at the end of my junior year I had a healing which left no doubt in my thought that divine Science was the Comforter Christ Jesus promised would come in his name [see John 14:26].
One night after returning home from school for summer vacation, I had a severe asthma attack. From about ten thirty until around four in the morning I prayed as best I knew how. However, around four I was in such a weak condition that I woke my mother and asked her to materially assist my breathing. She kindly asked me when "this" (the attack) had started. Before I could even reply, these thoughts came to me: This didn't start last night. This didn't start when I was a small child. This didn't start at the point of conception, and this didn't start back along a genealogical chain with my ancestors. The only thing that ever started was, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . . . And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:1, 31). Therefore, this, which certainly isn't "very good," didn't have a beginning or a start. Furthermore, I realized that when Jesus healed, he healed through spiritual means alone. There is no record of his using any human means to help someone.
Immediately I felt better, and I asked my mother to read to me. I did my best to hold on to each truth she read from the Bible Lesson as outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, and from the first pages of the chapter entitled "Christian Science Practice" in Science and Health. I continued to improve, and before long I had the strength to read by myself. Then I asked for breakfast and got dressed. As I ate I rejoiced over the beauty of the sunlight and the sparkle in the droplets of water on the lawn. Prior to that morning I had never been able to eat until well after an asthmatic attack. However, I now ate most of my meal.
Still weak and struggling but feeling much better, I asked to be driven to work. En route I assured my mother that I'd be all right. But I promptly corrected the notion of being all right at some future point by silently affirming that I was all right at that very moment. Two statements from Mrs. Eddy's writings then formed the basis of my prayer during that ride to work. They are: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494); and, "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307). I reasoned along these lines: God, I need strength for today, and I know that You will give me the spiritual ideas that will meet that need.
It is now a good number of years later, and I have never remembered exactly what happened between the time I began this prayer of affirmation in the car and the time I arrived at work. I do recall that as I got out of the car my mother assured me that no one would be aware that I was having a hard time breathing. Her comment startled me, for I was completely free physically. In fact, I had actually forgotten the night of struggle. There had been no period of recuperation. I was totally healed. I worked eight hours with complete mental and physical strength. That evening I ate a hearty dinner and worked another six hours on a night job. This healing hasn't been just an inspiring incident from my college days. It was the beginning of demonstrating continuing good health based on a recognition and acceptance of the spiritual sense of being.
After I had married, when our daughter was about two years old she suddenly manifested the same symptoms of asthma that I had had as a child. Her difficulty in breathing alarmed both her mother and me. I realized the helplessness my parents must have felt when they saw me as a small child struggling for breath. But by now I had had many proofs through the years that health difficulties can be healed through prayer. Therefore I recognized this as a new opportunity to stamp out a mortal belief of limitation that would attempt to choke the buoyancy of childhood. Both my wife (a Scientist) and I prayed to understand more clearly the fatherhood and motherhood of God. And we prayed to perceive more fully that each of His children is protected by Him. We clung to the spiritual fact that He is the only creator.
I resolved that our daughter wouldn't experience eighteen or so years of suffering as I had, and that I wouldn't go to sleep that night until I saw a healing take place. Even at that tender age, our daughter associated peace and harmony with the Bible and Science and Health. She'd seen us read these books, and apparently she had realized their healing power. At one point during the night while she was being cuddled in her mother's arms, she pointed to a copy of Science and Health and said, "Book! Book!" My wife obediently turned to the "book" for more spiritual strength. It wasn't long before healing came, and we all were peacefully asleep. And our daughter was not troubled again by symptoms of asthma.
Other healings in our family have included those of injuries, flu, an external growth, and an allergy. Also, professional and academic problems as well as business difficulties have been harmoniously resolved.
Our daughter is now seven. She is a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School, where she is learning to trust God. Not long ago she sensed that a person with whom I had been talking on the phone had some sort of problem. As soon as I hung up, she ran into my room and handed me a booklet for children published by The Christian Science Publishing Society. Then she said, "Here. Read this. It will make the man feel better."
Albuquerque, New Mexico
I am grateful to acknowledge our daughter's healing on the very night the symptoms of asthma appeared. At the time I was greatly touched by her insistence, despite the motherly comfort I offered, that I turn immediately to the "book!"
I met my husband well after his healing of asthma, and there has not been any evidence of his being troubled by that disease since I have known him. I would like to add a word about another healing of his that I have witnessed. When I was growing up, our family always had a cat. These animals were always "characters" in one way or another, and always fun. After David and I were married, I noticed that he had an allergic reaction to cats. I was a little disappointed and assumed that we would never be able to have one. However, a few years back, during a visit with some relatives at their house, my husband was proudly "allowed" by the children to sleep in the room with the family cat. Later David told me that he had prayed all night with the truth that he had never inherited an allergy, that there could be no belief of allergy attached to any of the creatures in God's kingdom. The next morning he was entirely free of the symptoms. It is my joy now to see him with the cat we added to our family just last year. They are great friends. The cat often sits on his lap while he is reading, and he has never had any allergic reaction to it.
I thank God that we are able to share this wonderful, freeing religion with our child.
